This is related to the following U.S. Patent Applications of the same inventors, filed on the same day as this application and assigned to the same assignee: xe2x80x9cIrrigation Timer and Clock Initialization Methodxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cIrrigation Timerxe2x80x9d.
Irrigation timers are used to control the delivery of water to sprinkler heads, driplines, etc. Most irrigation timers are set up to deliver water to sets of sprinklers in different watering zones to ensure that the sprinklers are provided with adequate water pressure. This also permits the different zones to be watered for different periods of time at different frequencies and at different times of day. Irrigation timers determine when and for how long water is delivered to each set of the sprinklers and actuate the irrigation valves in a predetermined or selected sequence to accomplish this.
One of the problems with conventional household-type irrigation systems is that they rely on a combination of sliding or rotating switches, push buttons and lighted displays perform and verify various functions, including setting the time of day, when to water, how long to water, etc. These conventional systems often rely on some type of common readout or display and the use of multifunction buttons, switches or other user inputs. The way conventional timers are designed, especially the use of multifunction user inputs, reduces the ease of use for the owner. This is especially true because after first being programmed, programming may not be necessary again for six months; because programming conventional irrigation timers is not necessarily intuitive, the user often needs to find and then re-review the instruction manual to ensure that programming is done properly.
The present invention is directed to an irrigation timer which substantially eliminates the complexity which is often involved in the use of conventional irrigation timers.
A first aspect of the invention is directed to an irrigation timer of the type including a controller coupleable to a power source and a user input providing an input to the controller. The controller also includes output signal terminals coupleable to irrigation valve actuators and an internal clock. Each irrigation valve actuator is coupleable to an irrigation valve for a watering zone with a watering period setting for each of the watering zones during a watering cycle. The controller divides the watering period for each watering zone by an integer n greater than 1 to obtain fractional watering periods. This permits each zone to be watered for its fractional watering period during a first fractional watering cycle prior to beginning a second fractional watering cycle. n of the fractional watering cycles constitute the watering cycle. The use of fractional watering periods help to spread out watering over a long period of time in each zone.
Another aspect of the invention is directed to an irrigation method in which a watering period is set for each watering zone during a watering cycle. The watering period for each zone is divided by an integer n greater than 1 to obtain fractional watering periods. Each zone is then watered for its fractional watering period during a fractional watering cycle; this watering step is repeated for n fractional watering cycles. The use of fractional watering periods help to spread out the watering over a longer period of time for each watering zone.
Other features and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description in which the preferred embodiment has been set forth in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.